Velocity
Robin Swoyer,Extermination 8.8 known publicly as , is a member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. Appearance & Equipment As Velocity, Robin wears a red costume with racing stripes down either side and two stripes meeting in a 'v' on his chest. His costume didn't include a "cup", allowing increased mobility.Tangle 6.6. Personality Robin likes being a cape and is happy to have an 'out' from military service, which could have well killed him due to the despair and frustration he felt if nothing else. However, he still feels quite frustrated. His ambition was to learn languages and travel.Velocity's Personality? Velocity is ex-military, was a callow youth who enlisted due to promises of ways to learn languages (Russian, Chinese) hoping to travel during/after the fact, and instead got stuck in the rank and file with no follow-through and longer terms than he expected. Edit: As with many breakers, it was a confluence of factors that led to his trigger in the end - being caught in a bad situation in a bad place in a bad mental state. Likes being a cape, and is happy to have an 'out' from the service, which could well have killed him due to the despair/frustration if nothing else, but frustration sort of permeates his existence. Duties and hours keep him from taking classes (though he has recently started putting some classes in Chinese on the local Protectorate's tab to give an edge when dealing with the ABB). This is sort of echoed in the power he got; a promise of freedom, but all he ultimately gets is a kind of helplessness and a kick in the balls. - archived conversation on Spacebattles Abilities and Powers Robin has the ability to change 'states' by seemingly altering the way time or physics work in relation to himself, speeding up at the cost of reduced ability to effect the world.Velocity – A member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, Velocity has super speed at the expense of proportionately lowered strength and an inability to affect the world. - Cast PageI wasn’t two steps outside of the darkness when I had Velocity in my face. ... Velocity, in contrast to Battery, was more like Shadow Stalker. He changed states, and while I had no idea what this meant exactly, whether it was him shifting partially into another dimension or altering the way time or physics worked in relation to himself, I did know that it made him able to move very fast, without needing to rest like Battery did. Fast enough that my wasps couldn’t really land on him, and those that did were dispatched before they could start stinging. The drawback, though, was that while he was moving like that, he wasn’t hitting as hard, probably for the same reasons he wasn’t shattering his bones by hammering his feet against the ground ten times a second, getting torn to shreds by friction or running out of oxygen due to an inability to breathe. His speed came with a reduced ability to affect the world around him and be affected by it. He couldn’t hit as hard, couldn’t hold or move things as easily. An effective loss of strength proportionate to how fast he was capable of moving. So as fast as he was moving, having him hit me wasn’t much worse than getting punched by an eight year old. - [ Excerpt] from Tangle 6.6.Venom 29.5 This breaker state enables him to function without shattering his bones while hammering his feet against the ground ten times a second, from getting torn to shreds by friction, or running out of oxygen due to an inability to breathe. However, it also prevents him from so much as lifting even small objects like cups and pitchers, and it makes his punches almost as weak as an eight-year-old's at high speeds; more like a very strong, sentient wind than anything else when attacking. His power seemingly reduces the effect of melee attacks on him, even when he can't see them, although Skitter speculated that may have simply been his enhanced ability to roll with them. It doesn't make him immune to poison. His perceptions are accelerated as well as his body. At full speed, Velocity was effectively impossible to hit in melee, having several subjective seconds to see and react to attacks. He could also make use of his enhanced reactions to judge the optimal location to place his punches. Problem was, he was hitting me a lot. His perceptions were ramped up, too, which meant he had the luxury of what must have been seconds in his own senses to see my reactions, calculate the best place to stick that next punch or kick to knock me off balance or inflict pain. It was less like being in a fistfight and more like being caught in a gale-force wind that had every intent of screwing me over. Velocity was forcing me to back up, stumble and overall just working to herd me in one direction – towards an open window. Either he’d force me through and leave me hanging from the ledge, helpless to avoid arrest, or I’d have to give up or let myself be knocked to the ground instead, at which point it would be pretty much over. Once I was down, he’d either keep up the onslaught until another cape could finish me off, or he’d turn off his power long enough to knock me over the head a few times with a chair or something. Velocity was fast enough to run on water.Extermination 8.3 He was capable of outrunning vehicles.Like Velocity, the Brockton Bay Protectorate member who’d died against Leviathan. He’d been a fast cape, capable of outrunning vehicles, striking a hundred times in a minute. But that came at the expense of a limited ability to affect the world. - Venom 29.5 He was the only Brockton Bay Protectorate member capable of keeping up with Purity along with Dauntless.Buzz 7.7 Grue's darkness interfered with his power in some way. Skitter speculated that it was the same effect that caused it to interfere with Shadow Stalker's power, although it may simply have been that it put up more resistance than air; even the weight of Skitter's bugs seemed to slow him down a little. However, even blinded and with his speed reduced, Velocity was still able to feel his way to targets and strike at them with around half effectiveness.“Grue!” I hollered. I got struck in the mouth three times before I could bring an arm up to fend Velocity off and speak again, “Need cover!” He spared me a glance and a blast of his darkness. In an instant, I was blind and deaf, with only my bugs to go by. But Velocity was slowed down, and I had my suspicions that it wasn’t just the fact that he had to use his hands to find me before striking. Grue had said that Shadow Stalker’s powers were somehow less effective in his darkness. Could that apply to Velocity too? Or was it just the extra resistance of Grue’s power versus normal air, combined with Velocity’s low strength? My bugs were now successfully settling on him, oddly giving me a better sense of his movements than my eyes had, and I was directing them not to sting or bite, so he wouldn’t have an easy time finding them. They began to cluster on him, and somehow I felt like that was slowing him down even more. The onslaught had been softened, and he wasn’t half as effective at keeping me off balance, now. He couldn’t effectively see my posture to know the optimal places to strike, so I was able to get my feet firmly on the ground. I lashed out twice with my fists, but my hits lacked impact. Something to do with his power, I suspected, as well as his ability to move fast enough to roll with any hits he felt connecting. He was fast enough that insects had difficulty landing on him, and was fast enough to kill the ones that did. However, if he was distracted, he did become somewhat vulnerable. Similarly, he was unable to dodge attacks he couldn't see coming. History Background Robin enlisted into the military due to the promise of a way to learn languages (Russian and Chinese) and hoped to travel during/after the fact. Instead, he got stuck in the rank and file with no follow-through and longer terms than he expected. He eventually triggered after being "caught in a bad situation in a bad place and a bad mental state." Robin joined the Protectorate. He also has started taking some classes in Chinese on the local Protectorate's team to give them an edge while dealing with the Azn Bad Boys. Story Start Velocity was present alongside Armsmaster and Miss Militia at the Battle at the Gallery. He squared off against Bitch and her dogs, then engaged Skitter only to be taken down by pepper spray and a baton between the legs. Velocity worked with Trickster in order to rescue people who were floundering in the water during Leviathan's attack.Some capes were climbing out of the water and onto the ruined buildings, with the help of the more mobile capes. Velocity and Trickster were working in tandem, Velocity running atop the water’s surface to safe ground, trickster swapping him for someone who was floundering, rinse, repeat. - Extermination 8.5 He died when the Crater Lake was created.Velocity (Deceased) – Deceased. Had enhanced speed at the cost of a lowered ability to affect the world. Slain in the Leviathan arc. - Cast Page (In-Depth) Post-Leviathan As with other fallen defenders of Brockton Bay his name was placed on a memorial in his honor.Extermination 8.8 Site Navigation Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Breaker Category:Mover Category:Heroes Category:Protectorate Category:Deceased Category:Worm Characters